Air Travel Demand Studies: A Review

During the last few decades, the study of air travel demand has attracted considerable attention from researchers. An extensive literature has emerged to examine the determinants and the future trends of the demand for air travel. One hundred and fifteen articles are identified that were published in English-language journals during the period of 1950 to 2008. This study presents the largest scale of literature survey on air travel demand studies and provides a comprehensive review of the existing studies. Particular emphasis of this review is placed on research development, publication sources, geographic focus, drivers of air travel demand, demand modeling and forecasting techniques, demand elasticity analysis, and leisure/tourism air travel demand. By critically evaluating the existing studies on air travel demand, this review aims to provide guidance to researchers who are interested in pursuing studies in this subject area. It is expected that this review will also encourage more studies of the demand for air travel.